Comments on: Look Out Kid, It’s Something You Did: Bob Dylan Stopped By Police, Asked For I.D.

By: scrivener

scrivener — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 18:39:31 +0000

I swear I didn’t see your story before I wrote this:

http://nowpublic.com/world/dylans-w-w-i-walking-without-id-john-lennon-treatment

Apparently, Rachel, our mainstream colleagues DO need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows…

By: Rachel Sklar

Rachel Sklar — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:20:57 +0000

Jose, I defer to you on pretty much ANYTHING relating to Bob Dylan.

By: Jose Simian

Jose Simian — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 12:46:19 +0000

I agree that there are several aspects of this story that merit more analysis than the simple anecdote. Yet the big story here is that Bob Dylan kills time looking at houses alone. He might have found the police incident amusing.

(Another Dylan song that comes in handy: “Ballad of a Thin Man”: “You walk into the room / With your pencil in your hand / You see somebody naked / And you say, “Who is that man?”)

By: Rawls

Rawls — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 19:38:42 +0000

The police always do this — “stop” a white guy in a “high crime area” or whatever the convenient pretext might be. If a white guy is out of place, they assume he’s there to buy drugs. It’s not “reasonable suspicion” to stop under law but happens all the time. This only comes to light b/c of Dylan.

By: Vidiot

Vidiot — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 19:24:31 +0000

And as far as I know, New Jersey does not have a stop-and-identify law, so Dylan (or anyone else who decides to take a walk) wasn’t actually compelled to provide ID. It doesn’t appear as if the officers had a reason to detain him, either. What’s suspicious about walking in the rain?

(And what if his ID said he was Robert Zimmermann? Would they have arrested him?)